A day after Trump vowed to destroy the Turkish economy should they cross him, Ankara says it won’t 'react to threats'

Turkey.
(Image credit: Burhan Ozbilici/AP)

It's tough to tell if President Trump's tweets reverberated in Ankara.

A day after Trump vowed Monday to "obliterate" the Turkish economy should Turkey's planned military invasion of northern Syria (which the White House appeared to have greenlit) result in anything he considers "off limits," Turkey's Vice President Fuat Oktay said Ankara would "not react to threats." Instead, he said, "when it comes to the security of Turkey, as always, our president emphasized Turkey will determine its own path."

Still, while Turkey's military operation appears to be imminent with battle plans drawn and troops heading to the Syrian border, there reportedly have not been any signs that forces are moving forward, casting some doubt that they'll completely ignore international reactions — which include calls to continue to supporting Kurdish forces in the region — to the plans.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Sabah, a Turkish newspaper aligned with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, published a report Tuesday that said Turkish armed forces would wait for the U.S. troops to fully withdraw from the region before beginning the operation, which it describes as "humanitarian work to bring back locals to the area." Read more at The Washington Post.

Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.